wasilla, alaska. that's sarah palin kaing her vote. talking about a possible game change. and life is short, have an affair. that's the theme you might be hearing a lot on advertising. no joke. there's a website that encourages cheating your honor spouse as advertisers are departing. rush's show, i think he's up to 20 lost advertisers now. this website is volunteering to step in with a major ad buy. we'll see what he says. those are your starting points on march 3th, 2 012. ♪ you give love a bad name >> oh, the jersey's coming out this morning. newark mayor cory booker joins our panel. you know if you signed up the whole political thing you could coanchor the show. if you decide presidential bid is not that interesting, we would love to have you. >> you don't get love a bad name. >> thank you.

see, he flatters me. you guys don't flatter me. you are back. we love having you. you've advised the buchman campaign and romney campaign. ron braun seownstein, you're so. that's happening. tim pawlenty, of course, the former minnesota governor and also former presidential candidate will be joining us this morning. and alice stewart, press secretary. she's going to talk to us. reince priebus, chairman of the rnc and kevin dewine is slated to talk to us as well. we're going start by looking right at the numbers. mitt romney landing six victories on super tuesday. it was a nail biter in ohio. 38% to santorum's 37%. ultimately like the difference of something like 12,000 votes. not very much. he also took idaho. he took alaska and massachusetts and vermont and virginia. there was no surprise there.

rick santorum claimed oklahoma and tennessee. he had been leading in the poll there's a. while there. he also took north dakota. newt gingrich costed to a very easy win in the state of georgia. gingrich and santorum are vowing to fight on as romney is now turning his attention to president obama as we've said before. here. >> 24 million americans are still struggling for work, they are high fiving each other in the west wing. my friends, 8% unemployment is not the best america can do. it's just the best that this administration can do. >> we have won in the west, the midwest, and the south. and we're ready to win across this country. >> we are going on to alabama. we are going on to mississippi. we are going on to kansas. that's just this week. >> i love what he went on to

talk about the bunny rabbits and the tortoise, nice and slow and controlled. delegate count, 404 for mitt romney. santorum, 165. gingrich, 106. ron paul, 66. no actual wins in any primary though. 1144 is the number to watch for. that's the number of delegates needed to clench a nomination. we begin with tim paw lentry. he's the national co-chairman of mitt romney's 2012 presidential campaign. thanks for talking with us. we appreciate your time. what did you think of last night? ten states, big picture? give me your assessment. >> soledad, when you're running in ten states against three other come presidenters and you win six out of the ten and do well on the other four, that's a pretty good night for mitt romney. he maintains the front-runner status. when you look at the delegate count, three times as next closest competitor. he's campaign is on a trajectory to the nomination. >> let's talk about the

strategy. the words i was hearing at the beginning of the week is coalescing and coalescing and then he got big endorsements, cantor endorsed. when you look at the xexit polling you don't see those conservatives coalescing as voters. is that a problem? >> well, when you -- first of all, endorsements, of course, matter a little but they don't matter a ton. when you look at the big states that have had open primaries, florida, you look at michigan, ohio last night. mitt romney does very well. he wins those states. in fact, he's won in every region of the country for a number of reasons. one, he's most likely to beat barack obama. that's not just spin. that's what the numbers show. two, he's got the best message and experience on the private sector economy. not having spent his whole life in government. three, he's not washington, d.c. like newt gingrich or rick santorum. he's spent their whole life in washington, d.c. or in relationship with it. and if the problem is washington, d.c., then you need to send somebody from outside of washington, d.c. to fix it. that's mitt romney. i think those are some of the reasons he's doing well and is

going to be the nominee. >> can i add a number four, he's got goo-gobs of money. that would bring me to the question then, why is he not further ahead? why is ohio just a squeaker? >> well, a few weeks ago he was double digits down in ohio. so the fact that he closed that gap in a few weeks and won, i think is a testament to the fact that he's got resilience and strength and momentum. i don't look at ohio and say what a disappointment. i look at ohio and say, my goodness, what a positive result. he was 14 points down three weeks ago according to one poll and to win it last night was remarkable. it's a four-way race. you've bot to go out and earn every vote. he's doing that. i think you look at those numbers in a reasonable person would conclude he's the best candidate and most likely to be the nominee. >> governor, good morning. ron brownstein. underscore soledad's point.

consistently last night as we have seen throughout, governor struggling with evangelical christians, middle income republicans, with those who consider themselves the most conservative. do you say any way for him to breakdown that very entrenched division in the party? do you see any signs of that eroding or is your camp going to have to live with that throughout the primary season? >> well, ron, as william f. buckley used to say, we won't the most conservative candidate who can also get elected. and mitt romney is conservative. if you look at his record of cutting taxes, growing jobs, cutting spending and the like, it's a conservative record but he can also get elected. the other candidates are viewed as less elect i belieable. when this field narrows, the party will unite, coalesce. it's a coalition. mitt romney has the capability and the merits to coalesce and unite this party and he will. it's not going to happen until

the field narrows more fully. >> governor, i want to ask you about the next ten days. the next ten days is scheduled just to follow along sort of what ron was getting at. the next ten days don't seem that favorable for the governor. what's the strategy heading into some of the southern states to try and get those conservatives to coalesce around him? >> sure. well, the next states coming up are more of a challenge for governor romney. i think that's clear. i think you look at the likelihood of various campaigns doing well in the states. these wouldn't be his strongest states but he does have momentum and he does have a great record. he's a great candidate. he's got that electability argument. there's no question about it, who is best is it waited to beat barack obama. that's the main octoberive for conservatives and republican, it's mitt romney. and you look at ohio as a bellwether of that, last night when women and other important grouches came to his campaign and supported him over the candidates that's another measure of his electability and

his ability to beat president barack obama. >> governor, it's cory booker. you said it's fortunate he did well given a four-way race. reality, isn't he lucky it's a four-way race. if newt gingrich dropped out wouldn't people coalesce around the other conservative alternatives and having a four-way race benefits him going into the convention? >> mayor, i'm still a little mimy miffed at you at some of the cheap shots you took at me at the gridiron club last june. >> i could make jokes right now but they were kind of off color. >> you will have to tell us a cleaned up version later. look, live lost control of my show. >> i try to give him a honoree minority status. some people say he's too vanilla. >> you made him an honoree black man? congratulations sir. answer the question. >> governor booker, governor

booker said i was too vanilla. and i asked him if he was playing the race card. >> if you keep calling me governor booker we have a very meek soft-spoken governor in our state. i think chris christie might be coming after you for that. >> good point. on your question, mayor, look, the -- it kind of cuts both ways. fi i think if you look at narrowing the field, some people say rick santorum and newt gingrich are a dividing part of the vote. but it's more complicated than that. if you look at the cross tabs of various religious groups, catholics, women, working women, single women, and how that all sorts out, actually you can make a case that if the field narrows, i think in many of the states coming up, not this next round but beyond that, mitt romney would don even better. >> governor pawlenty, nice to see you. we appreciate your time. if you want me to smack the mayor for you, just let me know. i'm that close to you.

i can do it for you, sir. >> thank you. all right. let's check in with christine romans. she's got some of the exit polls we were talking about diving a little deeper for us. good morning. >> good morning. i'm diving into the tennessee. a lot of talk about ohio but tennessee really shows the two choices in the romney/santorum fight here, if you will. look at ideology. in tennessee for those who consider themselves conservative, they went for rick santorum. somewhat conservative or consider themselves a moderate or liberal republican, they went for mitt romney. opinion of the tea party, support it or neutral oint, santorum. they oppose it, went for mitt romney. anything that is middle of the road, quite frankly, people go for mitt romney. what about top candidate quality? really tells a story also of these two candidates in the south. it might be interesting as we go further into some more of these torn primaries. for those who want experience, mitt romney is their guy. we've seen that in other states. for those who want character,

rick santorum is their guy. 65% of those who say top quality is character, went for santorum. true conservative, no real surprise, 63% went for santorum. gingrich is second at 22%. for those who say they want their candidate to beat the president, romney win thons count again. 40%. but gingrich comes in second at 32% there. so a little foreshadowing maybe of what some of the issues might be for the front-runner mitt rm and santorum who has been on his heels as they continue in the south. soledad? >> i find these exit polls so fascinating. talk about them all morning. thank you very much. we have a visitor today. carlos dirks az with our sister network, hln. i'm surrounded by handsome men. >> three out of four. all right. >> modesty, i like that even better. >> thank you. let's start with breaking news. six soldiers from the uk are missing and presumed dead after an explosion in the helmand province of afghanistan.

defense official says the incident took place while the troops within were on a security patrol in an armed vehicle. it would represent the worst loss of life for british forces in afghanistan in six years. new this morning, violent raids in syria today. soldiers storming rebel held villages with tanks. government forces blasted a bridge that wounded refugees were using to escape to lebanon. 8500 people were reportedly killed in the year long crack down. mostly civilians. president obama is now reportedly working to give humanitarian assistance to syria's opposition. meantime, former u.n. secretary general kofi annan is in cairo today meeting with the arab league, adding as part of a special envoy heading to syria saturday to try to convince president bashar al-assad to end the violence. a major upset on super tuesday. democratic congressman dennis kucinich a two-time presidential candidate, was defeated for the first time in 16 years in his

newly drawn district in ohio. about 90% reporting kept rif marcy kaptur tops kucinich 60% to 36% in the 9th congressional district. kaptur has been a frequent close ally of kucinich. kaptur is going to have to go on and face a familiar name for that district's congressional seat. remember joe the plumber from the 2008 campaign? well, last night he won his congressional primary in the 9th district. a narrow 51% to 48% victory over auctioneer steve kraus. wurzelbacher became popular for asking then senator obama about working class class rights. the new version of the ipad set to be announced today. and since apple of course won't confirm any details, here are some of the rumors that we have right now. a brighter, more clean retinal

display and a higher resolution. also got faster graphics and faster chip. videos will air with better quality. it will run on 4g, via verizon's lte network. and apparently be called the ipad hd, not the ipad 3. the official announcement is happening today at 1:00 p.m. eastern in san francisco. sadly to report this morn for colts fans, plans to release peyton manning today. the announcement is expected at a news conference today at noon eastern. manning has played his entire career, 14 seasons with the colts, won the super bowl, he's meant a lot for the city. he's had three neck surgeries in the last year and a half. still about to become the most coveted free nfl agent ever. it's going to be a big day in minneapolis. >> hasn't he recovered from that neck surgery? >> there is like him at duke university actually throwing a

football 50 yards. so the people are saying he looks better now. >> right. that's sad. that's sad. >> i don't see how they can do it. he's been there all that time and built that stadium. >> you have to move on. you cannot rest on the past. >> wow. >> andrew lock, who is the future in indianapolis. >> you're hard core on that. >> in modern sports, given the size of the contracts, learning how to cut the ties is as important as the original signings in the first place. >> i've seen andrew play. he's going to be an incredible addition. >> is he too vanilla? >> i can't believe you said that. and he said you're playing the race card. that's funny. still ahead this morning on "starting point," paying -- taking the blame for those bounties in the nfl for big hits. we'll tell you what they're saying this morning. ve we showed you, running into sarah palin at her hometown polling station. not only is she not ruling out a presidential bid in 2016, she also had something to say about rush limbaugh's critics. we'll tell you about that.

our get real this morning. have you ever been hit by a paint ball? that hurts. it hurts. it like leaves a welt on your arm. there's an updated version of paint ballgames. it's players armed with stun guns. come on. that's our "get real" this morning. we leave you can carlos diaz' play list. prince, "let's go crazy." i like this. oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ]

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wow, i would not pick this for ron brownstein. >> i just thought it was the question that republicans will be asking about mitt romney this afternoon. >> this is 3 doors down "kryptonite." i'm sort of surprised. we've known each other a long time. years and years and years. >> i think it's what they will be asking mitt romney, superman, just barely maybe? >> mild mannered man. >> you can see our play list every morning on our website, cnn.com/startingpoint. i also put my blog up there. it was written in like four minutes. be kind. we're going to talk about questions about whether this race, this long race, is good or bad for the jop. cnn spoke to sarah palin last night. she was voting in her hometown of wasilla, alaska. >> five men run for president and i think barack obama is the worst choice, the last choice. so the four in front of him, as they duke it out in the arena of

ideas and solutions to propose, the more of that the better. >> so do you think that's true, the more the better? sometimes there's evidence, she's now said the more the better. we heard it before from reince priebus said it's a good thing, it vets the candidates, you get to see them. you're shaking your head no. >> absolutely. as polls show this week, romney at this point in the race has the weakest favorable/unfavorable ratio of any nominee w. with one exception, bill clinton in 1992 when hit with allegations about the draft and jenngenerajennife. it's been dropping among independents and conservative voters. it's a trick to manage both of those groups at the same time. in some cases 2008, obama/clinton probably did strengthen them and get them known many more states. but in this race it's hard to argue the way this has unfolded

had benefitted the republican chances of beating president obama. >> you know a bit about nasty political races. >> anybody who says they would prefer to see a long tough campaign is trying to spin so much they might be getting nauseous. mitt will probably want everybody out and start campaigning against barack obama. >> i think each individual would. but for the party as a whole. >> it's not. it's hurting the brand of the republican party. i think that the debates are it getting ridiculous. i think the to see this kind of ongoing punishing campaign going on between people over issues that most americans aren't concerned about. the fact that we're talking about everything from birth control to other social issues takes away from the core issue of the day, which is the economy. it's hurting the republican brand. it's hurting the event chul nominee and i'm sure most republicans are thinking they wish it was over. >> i thought the tone of the speech. when you heard mitt romney give him -- i was almost going to say concession speech and that was a little -- well, we've got a long haul ahead of us and we're going

to step by step and door -- it wasn't -- it wasn't the speech of a man who last night won six out of ten primaries. >> yeah. well, i mean, the one thing i will say is coming out of south carolina i did think that that battle actually sharpened mitt's message. i think along the way this would serve to sharpen his message. if we're talking about this in june, then i do think it's a problem. >> it is worth remembering. the one candidate favorable/unfavorable as weak at this point in the process is bill clinton in 1992. it can be overcome. romney has been pulled to the right in a number of issues. immigration and latinos, numbers are scary for republicanss. still ahead, we're going to talk to the rnc reince priebusen last ahead, we're going to talk about playing through the pain. talk about what we understand in sports. did you see this? this is our "get real" this morning. stun gun. basically paint ball with stun guns. insane. i'm going to leave you with my

play list. h is my daughter's play list, 11. rolling stones "brown sugar". i thought, oh, you're a cool little girl. >> old school. >> for an 11-year-old. for fastidious librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on...

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welcome back, everybody. much more ahead this morning on "starting point." looks a little bit like a crazy sci-fi movie. a sand to remember. this is a sand to remembstorm h down an interstate. and breaking vows and backing rush. website for cheaters. yes, no joke. they're making an offer to buy up the advertising. that's like, hm, kind of a mixed blessing there, i guess. we're going to talk to the ceo

of that website called ashleighmadison.com. rick santorum scores a hat trick. we're going to talk with santorum's spokesperson straight ahead. how they're feeling the morning after. short break. back in a moment. the best part of any great meal? delicious gourmet gravy. and she agrees. with fancy feast gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them.

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8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge!

for this administration, the unemployment number is just another inconvenient statistic standing in the way of a second term. but those numbers are more than data on a spreadsheet, they're worried families and anxious faces. to the millions of americans who can look around and see only jobs they can't get and bills that they can't pay, i have a message, you have not failed. you have a president that's failed you. >> well, the big headline from super tuesday, there was no big decisive win. mitt romney took the most states and most delegates. won ohio, massachusetts. rick santorum took home north dakota, oklahoma, and tennessee. newt gingrich as predicted took his home state of georgia. here's the delegate count. romney has 404 delegates. santorum with 165 delegates.

gingrich with 106. and ron paul with 66 delegates. that means it's very long way off to the magic number as we keep pointing out of 1144. let's get right to reince priebus. chairman of the national republican committee. we're going to name a chair after you, we have you on so often. >> happy to be here. >> we l. would love to have you in person one day when you're in new york. you said, listen, fights are good because they help hone everybody's message and people benefit from sort of a tough primary fight. but then the conversation seem to be turning to coalescing around a candidate. and i think the polls from last night, exit polls, don't show coalescing. what where do you think things stand right now for the party? >> well, i think you've captured the big part of this which is a combination between the chase for delegates and the inevitability of winning. and i think as these big primary day goes by and we get through the month of march, i think you're going to see whether or

not we have a real front-runner that's combining both winning and key battleground states and adding up the appropriate amount of delegates for people to start running the math and saying, look, we've got a front-runner here. so i think that's important. i don't think we're there yet but i do think it's important for the race and the analysis moving forward, that we look at both of those things. >> sarah palin said when she was interviewed, i guess they nabbed her while she was trying to vote last night. she said, listen, i think a fight is good. here's a little bit of what she said. >> is the open convention question, if we wind up with an open convention, if someone wants to place your name, throw your name into the hat, would you stop them? would you be open to that? >> as i say, anything is possible. and i don't -- i don't close any doors that perhaps would be open out there. so, no, i wouldn't close that door. and my plan is to be at that convention. >> my plan is to be at the convention after she said a

fight is good. listen, there are five people fighting and she thinks, obviously president obama in her mind is the least good candidate of all of them. what role do you potentially see for her at the convention? >> i don't know yet, soledad. we're not planning any of the convention right now or the program or, you know, certainly sarah palin, governor palin has a big voice in america and in our party. and we respect her a whole lot. i personally don't see a brokered convention at all. i think that this is so far off, we're not anywhere near where we were even in nominating bush 41 or bush 43. they weren't even the nominees until the end of april. we're in the beginning of march. everything we've talked about before still stands. as far as like, you know, the idea that a tough primary isn't good for a party, i had our research department just find a few of the headlines from 2008. and in those headlines some of those, for example, the "new york times," a present from

mccain, as the other side fights. the boston globe, mccain media adviser says democrats are hurting themselves. we all know how that turned out. hillary clinton/barack obama. and legendary primary battle. but ultimately barack obama winning pretty easily. so don't always assume that a primary fight is a bad thing. in fact, i think it's the opposite. i think it's going to be great for our party. >> it's interesting there on the democratic side, the engagement only grew and grew and grew. the angrier the fight became, more people were engaged in their person going to the polls. when you look at the actual number of people who are turning out it's down. i think ohio is up a little bit. >> ohio was actually up 150,000 voters from 2008. >> everywhere else, though, i think the averages is down like 9%. >> michigan was up the early states were up. i think there's also some dynamics, soledad, too, like in

virginia. yeah, the voting was done but you also had only two candidates on the ballot. so, i mean, i also think you had primaries in both the democratic side and the republican side in '08 so that you had both sides coming out and voting. so i mean, comparing the two, i know that's something that's pretty common now, that people are comparing the numbers. but i don't think it's exactly fair, either. >> apples and oranges. >> comparing one side to both sides of '08. >> nice to see you. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. let's get right to carlos diaz with headlines for us. >> good morning. no pictures this time, please. >> i was snapping pictures, for twitter. come on. >> fine. good angle. i like it. israeli's prime minister assist that no decision has been made on whether or not or when to attack iran. benjamin netanyahu today senators that he dauth doubts sanctions against iran will prevent it from pursuing the program. he told lawmaker, quote, we have great friends in washington.

president obama pushed for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in a news conference yesterday, just one day after meeting with netanyahu. 30 to 50-mile-per-hour winds slamming parts of palm springs, california. police shutting down roads because of blowing sand. forecasters warning, drivers that the blowing dust and sand could reduce visibility to near zero at times. and no reports or accidents or injuries have been reported yet. and your a.m. house call, new warning from the fda, mercury discovered in anti-aging and skin lightening creams and soaps. these products are made overseas and sold in the u.s., mainly in latino, african, asian, and middle eastern neighborhoods. it promises to remove age spots and blem misses. mercury is highly toxic. exposure can cause brain and kidney damage. they're reporting several cases of people suffering symptoms of mercury.so mercury poisoning.

players were paid bonuses for vicious hits. in a joint statement, coach john peyton and gm mickey loomis apologized saying, quote, these are serious violations and we understand the negative impact it had on our game. both of us made it clear within our organization that this will never happen again, and make that same promise to the nfl and most importantly to all of our fans. and attention all of you adrenaline junkies out there. it's an electrifying new sport called ultimate tack ball. part soccer, part rugby. what makes this so extreme, it's also part stupid because there are stun guns involved. it's sport's first international tournament in bangkok. imagine that. it's in bangkok. stun guns tag about 10% of the power of taser stun guns used by police. >> these are really low voltage stun guns. they are used to be tak stun guns. i'll do it to myself.

you get a little twitch. >> it hurts but it's not enough to stop you from your adrenaline is pumping. >> is t. sport was create bid guys who wanted to create the extreme of extreme sports. these guys are crazy and they're already getting shock therapy. it's nice. >> you cannot take a sport seriously where the ball is this big. it reminds me of like when my sons play with the big medicine ball. come on. that's so silly. and that hurts. paint ball hurts. >> you throw a stunner in there as well! it's not just the paint ball. >> it's shocking it's in bangkok. >> yes. ahead this morning on "starting point." website for cheaters. they made an offer to rush limbaugh. his advertise rers bailing. it's up to more than 20 have fled. they say they will buy up all of his advertising space. we'll see what they have to say about that this morning. and back to carlos diaz' play list. listen to you. van halen, "panama."

short break. we'll be right back. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ 8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- kinda. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss

with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge!

what does it say about the college coed susan fluke who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? what does that make her? >> well -- >> it makes her a slut, right? makes her a prostitute. she wants to be paid to have sex. >> no, actually, technically, it makes her a woman who would like to have her contraception covered, is what it makes her. those comments from rush limbaugh creating a bigger and bigger fire storm. president obama weighed in on how mr. limbaugh -- the words he used to describe the georgetown law student sandra fluke. here's what he said. >> i don't know what's in rush limbaugh's heart so i'm not going to comment on the sincerity of his apology. what i can comment on is the fact that all decent folks can agree that the remarks were made

don't have any place in the public discourse. >> rush limbaugh's lost more than 20 advertisers since he made those comments. you can see the list on the screen right there. but one company is stepping up to support him. he is on our panel this morning, owner op ashleighmadison website who connects married people to other people to have affairs. i did not believe this existed so i was checking it out this morning. it is true. your tag line is, we're the best site in infidelity, or something version of that. is that right? >> soledad, it's actually life is short, have an affair. >> oh. okay. there's another version, too, that i saw. so explain to me what the plan is. he's lost 20 advertiser which means there's lots of ad space to buy up. how much money do you want to put up? do you want to buy all of his advertising space now? >> yeah, we're totally willing to step into the void left by other advertisers, you know, fleeing. i'm happy to have ashleigh madison users join from 10

million rush limbaugh million users. seems like a great marriage. if it costs 2 or $3 million, happy to pony up. >> in all seriousness, the advertisers are leaving rush limbaugh's show because of the words that he used. they were deemed to be inappropriate, offensive, et cetera, et cetera. so how does that fit nicely in your company's marketing strategy. you say that works great for us. why? >> we always core controversy to ashley madison. in 2007 when we started a campaign with howard stern, they said, women are going to be offended and not come to the service. today we haver in acquired more women through cnn, fox, howard stern. i don't think those are accuracies. listen, blue and red states, people cheat in both of them. republican, democrat, men, women, everybody is prone to having an affair. the bottom line, my audience sits with his audience and i'm happy to advertise to them.

>> but you've been turned down before by that show because they are not that happy to have you as advertisers. you've been turned down on moral grounds. is there any indication that, in fact, they're going to take you up on your offer even with the 20 or so advertisers that are leaving? >> you know, he's in business, just as i am. so has the right and if he wants to express himself that way, sounds like he regrets some of the comments he made but that is his right. so being in business he needs to operate and i'm there to support that business operation if he wants those dollars. >> the point of this, what's happening right now, i mean, whether or not you have any expectation that he will accept your offer, isn't the point of making the offer that what we're doing right now which is talking to you and you're advertising yourself on national tv for nothing. >> no, the point of the offer is to try and get ashley madison and i beyond creative and most effective to it letting people mow there's an alternative out

there in having a an affair than the workplace or singles dating site. it is my opportunity to speak to ten million plus people. i would welcome the opportunity than just the two minutes on camera traded right now. >> do you have a position in this whole debate? do you support rush limbaugh on this? do you support sandra fluke in this? >> you know, i think you're going to ask me as a person, you know, who believes in tolerance and that everyone should be able to do what they want to do, i would definitely say my vote would go with sandra's position and i would support that. as a business operator who believes in first amendment rights and the opportunity for business toes to exist and peop to express themselves as people see fit. if he wasn't controversy rush wouldn't have the following he does. i support his ability to say what he wants to say and apologize thereafter the that's his prerogative. i think there's a kind of game that goes on in america all the time. n fliks, other people pulling out from their advertising, who who do you think they were going to advertise on in the first place. you need to know your media.

>> noel bederman is the ceo. >> i didn't know it existed. >> the level of shamelessness in this country is getting frustrating to me. >> it was odd. >> sickening. i would rather see advertisers leaving. we should leave. we should be voting with our feet but we give attention to people the farther they push the envelope. unbelievable reality tv show which is gaining premium to disgusting comments made like this. we as americans shouldn't let cynical businesspeople take advantage of news this way. forget that. we should be making decisions to watch shows, to frequent things and to understand that we have media and market power with the choices that we make. and when we watch things like that, we're creating a nation that is, you know, a lifestyles of the rich and shameless as opposed to the core values of this country which are getting bludgeoned. >> that is, ditto. still ahead this morning on

"starting point," the santorum campaign is going to join us. we're going to talk with him right after this short break. stay with us. it's an art collective. we're a group of people from various disciplines who come together to create really fun and interesting innovative art. what is the unofficial motto here? >> well, there's a couple. >> no surprise. >> geeks with girlfriends. we've also been called drinking club with an art problem. fast company called us league of extraordinary nerds. some people express themselves through science. some people express themselves through art. syn labs is s is is a meeting p where it all comes together. ♪

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let's listen to this for a bit. bruce springstein. city of ruins. i love that. i love that. we're rocking out this morning. >> it's really great. bruce ol low gist. >> no, ron brownstein is your bruceologist. we have to talk about politics. mitt romney squeezing out a win in the crucial state of ohio is what we're looking at this morning. a state that is considered to be a bell weather. true gauge of the entire nation. it was a very narrow marge ginl. he captured 38% of the vote compared to rick santorum's 37% of the vote. santorum countered with wins in oklahoma, tennessee. raising fresh concerns about mitt romney's ability to win over conservative voters. that's why rick santorum last night was vowing to fight on. >> this was a big night tonight. lots of states. we're going to win a few. we're going to lose a few, but as it looks right now, we're going to get at least a couple

of gold medals and a whole passe full of silver medals. >> alice stewart is a national press secretary for rick santorum's presidential campaign. nice to see you. thanks for talking with us. let's start if we can this morning with the big picture. he, the candidate himself, called it silver medals that he won. three big wins though. assess overall last night. >> it was a tremendous victory for our cam pain. for us to have the resources that we have and for rick to do so well, it's a tremendous victory. claiming three states, important states, that's great news for us. when we're going against someone like mitt romney who is outspending us sometimes six, up to 12 times as much. with the name i.d. he has, for us to be giving him a run for his money in an important state like ohio, that should raise some serious concerns for mitt romney. this reinforces the fact that the message that rick santorum is putting out there resonates with the people.

it's a matter of getting it out there, getting him face to face with the people. the people see that he has the right message and he is a real person and he has real ideas and real solutions that will help. what they want more than anything, someone who will create jobs and the economy. >> if you had any money, do you think you could have won? the numbers in ohio, 3.8 million. if you look at romney spending super pac and campaign versus the roughly $1 million to your campaign. you raised in february alone some $9 million. are you saying with a bigger war chest you could have won? >> that would have certainly been a tremendous help to our campaign. while the message is the number one factor, money helps to get the message out. but what we faced was the negative campaign attacks by the romney campaign which was very harmful. people are beginning to see, they're looking at mitt romney and they see he is not the solution. he is not the answer to what we need. for him to have the resources he has and not be able to sweep

these states, that goes to show that he's not what people are looking for. and the most serious thing that has come to note lately is the fact that he has not been honest with the people of this country about where he stands on the individual mandate. he wrote the model for obama care with romney care. he has been telling people all along i never said it would be good for the country. now he's doing op eds. we've seen him on several national programs in 2009 where he tauted the fact that president obama embraced his romney care. he's glad to see it's being implemented on the national level. he has not been honest with the people of this country and they realize that now. they're going to started turning against him. >> brett? >> hi, alice. it's brett here. good to talk to you. you guys had a great night last night. the question is you still are behind in the delegate count and so what is the path forward for senator santorum in getting to 1144? >> well, as you know, it's -- we're a far cry from anyone reaching the magic number of 1144. what rick's going to do is what

he's been doing, getting out there face to face with the people. we'll be in kansas, alabama, mississippi, texas, be in the key states that are coming up leading up to the caucuses saturday and next week. what he does best is that one on one retail politics. he likes to talk to the people. a lot of times people will see him on television or read about him in the paper, but what really seals the deal is when he goes out there, delivers his message in person and they see that he has the right views and values that they represent, that they want in someone that represents them. he's consistent on the issues and when they look back at his record they see that what he says today is what he's done in the past. the best way to view how someone will act in the future is to look at their past. he's been consistent unlike mitt romney who has flip-flopped on many of the key issues from certainly owe bomt ma care to cap and trade and on life issue and traditional marriage. these are things that people see. they look at the record and say, how do we know they're not going to go back to the middle again?

rick santorum has been right on the issues from day one and that's what conservative voters want. >> i'm dying to ask this question. you're on the front lines and this is a great privilege for me to ask somebody who's being prodij gously punished by citizens united by a lack of equal playing field. you are fighting this well but being outspend sometimes 10 to 1. how does it make you feel about citizens united and the way we're doing campaign financing? is it really fair? >> you have to hand it to any candidate that can raise money. the key is the one thing to note about what rick has, he has large number of small donors and that's what we want. we can continue to go back to the well and the contributions. >> do you consider citizen united, do you think we should reconsider the way we do this? it doesn't create an equal playing field for somebody who's being hurt by the way the system is set up now? >> well, certainly the onslaught of money that we have from pacs and super pacs is impacting the

election. we should have the campaigns putting their names on ads and issues that they put out there, but what's the most important, while money is key, what we're looking at and what we focus on is getting the right message out to the voters. >> you all would support changing the law? >> well, the key thing is there's many aspects of campaign finance that certainly do need to be addressed and super pacs are one of them. all of that, you know, certainly needs to be looked at. what we're focusing on right now is doing what we need to do. that is going out there and racking up as many delegates as we possibly can, campaigning in these states coming up on the primary calendars. that's the number one focus. >> alice stewart is the national press secretary for the santorum campaign. thanks for talking with us. we have to take a short break. we're back in a moment. . come on -- nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh. how'd that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are

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and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. the race moves forward. there's really no coalescing, i guess. mitt romney walking and talking like the nominee, sort of. he couldn't put away rick santorum or newt gingrich either on super tuesday. >> when it comes to this economy, my highest priority will be worrying about your job, not trying to save my party. i stand ready to lead our party and i stand ready to lead our nation to prosperity. >> plus we'll talk this morning about a new film that shows -- >> in the midwest and the south and we're ready to win across this country. >> lots of bunny rabbits that

run through. i'm the tort to us. i take one step at a time. >> that's a funny line. also this morning going to talk about a new film that shows 2008 sarah palin on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown. that's a quote. palin herself says it is a fiction. the director of "game change" is going to join us. peyton manning on the verge of becoming the biggest football free agent ever. a news conference is scheduled for noon today. is he going to get in a divorce with the colts? we'll see. those are our starting points those are our starting points for wednesday, march 7th, 2012. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ start me up. welcome back, everybody. we are back. we're joined -- >> you have a he got the moves. >> that's right. don't make me show you them. new york's mayor cory booker.

co-anchoring. brett o'donnell has been back. he's been a debate coach for a lot of people. inside scoop. ron brownstein is back with us from the national journal. let's get to our "starting point." it was pretty much a split decision, especially if you look at the state of ohio. mitt romney won eventually ohio. he won idaho, virginia, vermont, alaska. rick santorum took north dakota, he took only cla home ma, tennessee. newt gingrich held his home state of georgia. all of that is a very long way to 1144. that, of course, is the magic number needed to clinch the nomination. the overall delegate tally stands right now with romney at 404. santorum at 165. gingrich at 106. ron paul at 66. the candidates though sound like they all have victory on their minds. here's how they sound. >> i'm not going to let you down. i'm going to get this nomination. >> we have won in the west, the midwest, and the south and we're ready to win across this country. >> we are going on to alabama.

we're going on to mississippi. we're going on to kansas. and that's just this week. >> we always win, right? the cause of liberty is on a roll, let me tell you that. >> kevin dewine is the chairman of the ohio republican party. he joins our panel this morning. nice to see you, sir. thanks for talking with us again. let's begin with the results in your state, the state of ohio. analyze them for me. >> look, obviously a very close race. i've been talking since the campaign left michigan a week ago that ohio was going to be a dead heat. we saw it coming. and it proved to be the case until early this morning when that race was ultimately able to be called. i think for your viewers, the one thing you want to look at when you look at the ohio map and the counties won by romney

and the counties won by santorum. for your viewers there's a highway that runs -- state -- interstate 71, i'll get it out. >> it's been a long night. >> it's been a long night. it's been a long night. i 71 that runs from cincinnati to cleveland. basically that's the predictor that we talked about all day yesterday. that would be where romney would be able to win this race. we fully expected santorum to do very well in kind of the southeast and northwest. more of the appalachian area. more of the social conservative area. so it kind of played out what we thought. both in terms of where the votes came from and the closeness of the race. >> so the coalescing that people were predicting. i bet if you went back and counted the word coalesce over the last two days, we bet a lot of numbers on that. didn't happen it doesn't sound like. >> no, it didn't happen, but i didn't expect it to happen. what we saw over the course of

the last week was both of these campaigns in here competing for votes in every corner of the state. they were -- obviously they were running their air cover in terms of tv and robo calls and radio ads, but these candidates, they were crisscrossing the state. they were doing rallies. they were doing lincoln day dinners. for about two weeks the ohio voters had an opportunity to see these candidates up close and personal and we're used to that. we're talking about the buckeye state which is used to seeing presidential candidates and making them test their medal. that's what happened yesterday with both -- with santorum and romney. >> mr. dewine, let me get your opinion on something. if you look at that map in ohio, county map, rick santorum won counties that republicans tend to win in november. mitt romney won counties that democrats tend to win in november. what does that say about which one of them will be more effective in contesting the state against president obama? >> well, i know this much, that

the republican base is ready to come out and defeat barack obama and so, you know, the voters of ohio, the voters -- republican voters across this country will decide who our nominee is. that will play out over obviously the next few months. i can tell you this, what we saw yesterday with almost 1.2 million people voting in the republican primary, i know people like to talk about the fact that there's no enthusiasm. not the case. >> the implication -- >> 10% increase in voter turnout in ohio and what we see, and what we see is people who are ready, regardless of the nominee, people who are ready to come out and make barack obama and brown a one term president and senator. >> if the base will turn out, is the implication you believe the guy that ran better in the democratic area, mitt romney, is a stronger nominee because the base will come out either way and he has more strength in places where republicans are not guaranteed a strong showing? >> i think you can -- one could

conclude that. you know, what we look at is not just what the polls say but -- in terms of the voting results, but we look at things like the anecdotal things of where are the lincoln day dinners, party events? we haven't seen this sort of enthusiasm in ohio since maybe 2004 on the republican side. i was talking to one of our county chairs earlier in the week down on the ohio river. she said they haven't seen this sort of enthusiasm incompetent side the party in her county since maybe the 1970s or even 1960s. to me there's this bubbling -- >> i'm sorry. go ahead. i didn't want to cut you off. i wanted to throw up a poll. this is what you're talking about. go ahead. sorry. i keep interare you thing you. >> go a het. it's your show. >> you would be the first person who's ever said that to me, sir. >> wellman nered guest. >> you are now number one on my list of guests. you can come back any time you want. there's a poll in your state that says 51% of the people say they're satisfied with the

choices. a very large number, 46%, say they would like to see somebody else run. i mean, that's got to be -- so when you talk about enthusiasm i w is why i jumped in, that seems to undercut your conversation about enthusiasm, right? >> no, no, no. there's two things going on here. there's the enthusiasm to go fix the mistake that ohio made in 2008 when it went for barack obama. there is a huge level of excitement about if i cfixing t mistake. that's different than saying are people satisfied with the candidates in the race. i don't think there's going to be another person get in this race, and i think the reason that you get a 46% of the people are looking for somebody else is, candidly, it's become kind of a nasty kind of a campaign. people talk all day, talking heads on shows like this talk about how nasty the race has become, the divisive nature. if you're the average republican voter sitting at home, you get sick of it, you get tired of it,

you have 47 robo calls hit your phone and you say, geez, i wish there was somebody else. but the reality is, there isn't going to be anybody else and the number one thing that the republican party is going to focus on this fall is taking all of that energy and enthusiasm we saw yesterday and over the course of the last three or four months, we'll train our sights on making barack obama a one-term president. we're ready to go. >> kevin dewine is joining us. for you, any time you want to come back now we'd love to have you. >> i'll see you tomorrow morning. >> first thing. other headlines making news, carlos diaz has those for us. >> new this morning, deadly crackdowns in syria ramping up this morning with government forces now raiding villages in armored tanks. heavy shooting breaking out this morning. at least 8500 people reportedly killed in a year of these crackdowns. now the syrian military blasted a bridge yesterday that wounded refugees that they had been using to escape into lebanon.

president obama is now reportedly working to give direct aid to syria's opposition. after 16 years democratic congress than dennis kucinich will not be headed back to congress. the two-time presidential candidate was defeated in his newly drawn district in ohio last night with about 90% reporting, marci kaptor tops him 60%. kaptor has been a frequent ally. she's the longest serving woman in congress. newt gingrich's entourage is a little bit larger this morning. starting today former speaker of the house becomes the third gop candidate to receive secret service protection. it's not because he won georgia on super tuesday. his campaign submitted paperwork requesting protection late last month. and parting is such sweet sorrow, especially if you're a hard core colts fan today. the indianapolis colts have

scheduled a news conference for noon eastern time reportedly to announce releasing star quarterback peyton manning. he's played his entire 14 year career in indy winning a super bowl and four mvp awards. he sat out last season with a neck injury that went down to his arm as well. he's about to become the most coveted nfl free agent ever. soledad, this is by far the biggest sports story of the year. it transcends sports because peyton manning has given so much to indianapolis. basically if he wasn't there the colts might be in los angeles right now. >> there's an emotional connection. i know you feel like, hey, got to move on. >> i have an emotional connection as well. >> no, you don't. >> i do. i grew up with peyton manning in indianapolis. what i'm he saying is he's being push pd out by the next peyton manning and that's andrew luck. you have to move on. you cannot hold onto the past. you've got to move on. >> who's going to hum "glory days" for peyton. come on. >> fine. >> we're going to agree to disagree on that. still ahead on "starting point,"

a film about the rise and then alleged breakdown of sarah palin. listen. >> you can actually see russia from land here in alaska. >> oh, my god. what have we done? >> was it my fault i wasn't properly prepped? >> director is going to join us to defend his new movie on hbo. it's called "game change." one state is thinking about changing the way teachers earn tenure. mayor booker is in the middle of that. brett o'donnell leaves us with his play list. you're watching "starting point." back in just a minute. ♪ all energy development comes with some risk,

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hbo will premiere the movie. it's called "game change." it's based on the book. it gave a behind the scenes look at the 2008 presidential election and the relationship between john mccain and sarah palin. >> this was rightly noted in denver this week that hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in america but it towns out the women of america aren't finished yet. you can shatter that glass once and for all. >> that's julie ann moore who's portraying sarah palin. jay is the director. he joins us. it's nice to have you. >> great to be here. >> you've been getting tons of push back. sarah palin calls it fact change. it's not a surprise that people

don't like their portrayal in a movie often. >> sure. we knew we would be under a lot of scrutiny. we tried to make sure we got it right. we based it on a great book, the book "game change." and we went back and double and triple checked with all those senior campaign people that we could get access to, which was most everybody in the film. we just knew we'd have to say, yeah, we talked to the people who were actually there, who actually made the decisions about what went on, how she got -- in terms of how she got onto the ticket and how it was handled once it went well and once it wasn't going so well. >> it's a very narrow focus of time. >> yes. that's right. >> you picked a very narrow focus. >> we had a two-hour movie to make. we couldn't do sort of ken bern style mini series. that book has so much scope covering all of the candidates throughout the entire primary season and the final general

election so i felt that story with those characters all kind of locked into this last sprint to the finish line was the most compelling and so that was the only reason that we selected that one section. >> let me play a little bit of what john mccain told me what he thought about the movie, which he has not seen and has absolutely no intention of seeing at all. here's what he said. >> understand. >> of course not. it's based on a book that was inyou endo, unsubstantiated remarks. it was a great piece for the re-election of president obama by authors who were obviously committed to it. of course i wouldn't watch such a thing. i have better use of my time. >> he says he has better use of his time because that's a political piece. >> right. yeah, i don't agree at all. i guess to some extent it is certainly a political piece in that it's trying to ask questions about how the political process is working these days. it's gotten so polarized and you can see from the film that these strategists were pushed to such a place of desperation and went

for kind of win at all costs decision to vet her so quickly, to rush that vet so much that they were caught surprised by many of the things that started to come out during the campaign. so that's all it was about. for me it was about trying to ask questions about is this the way it should work? is this how we want politics to be driven? >> is brett in the movie? >> yeah. i don't think so. what i was going to ask is i was a part of this process. i was a senior staffer on the campaign. no one ever talked to me about what really happened. and i haven't seen the movie so i can't speak to its factor fiction, but the curious thing to me is why focus on the campaign that lost. why not focus on the campaign that won and what happened behind the scenes there and weaknesses, strengths going forward? >> we actually looked at that section of the book, the obama and clinton campaign very carefully. we even had a script written, but it was a two-year process.

it was very episodic through the primaries. it, frankly, didn't feel like as good a story. and hbo had already made a special relationship which dealt with the clinton blair relationship. there was some hillary clinton and bill clinton moments in it. but the main thing was the palin mccain campaign story was phenomenal. it really was the game changer for me in the entire election. >> the dispute you're in is a dispute that goes back to the book and before the book to the contemporaneous reporting during the campaign that had a lot of similar analysis. how did you get to the point in your mind where you said the palin camp which is denying a lot of these stories and has been just isn't telling you the truth? >> well, for one thing, the recent criticisms came from people who had not seen the film so they started attacking it before they had seen it and my answer still is see the film and tell me that it's not a layered, fair portrayal of the campaign because we were committed to --

the more i learned about governor palin, i listened to her book as she read it out loud herself, to connecting with her point of view in this story, too. and if you see the whole film before you make a judgment, you'll see that it's actually showing everything that they want to get out there. she was very strong, very effective, very charismatic and very good at connecting with her, you know, constituents, her future voters, if you will, and we show that. and so -- and we also show with great sympathy what it was like to be attacked the way she was and so i feel like if you see the film, you might have a different conclusion. maybe not for those people. >> that cues us up nicely because it airs on saturday. everyone who wants to see it should watch it on hbo. we appreciate it. got to take a short break. we can continue through the commercial break. still ahead on "starting point" this morning, a move to change

the way that teachers earn their tenure. they have to make the grade, too. debate is going on in new jersey. going to talk to mayor cory booker. we'll leave you with ron brownstein's play list. flashback. jack-of-all-trades. ♪ . dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪

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♪ when you say that i want it that way ♪ ♪ tell me why i was going to say the same thing. wow. brett o'donnell's play list. he went right for it. wow. well, call me surprised. let's talk about teacher tenure. education obviously sometimes a very angry and didvisive issue.

in new jersey there's a new bill. a teacher who's been rated ineffective or lower for two years in a row would lose tenure. critics on all side, supporters as well, governor chris christie has weighed in. you both have testified and mayor booker, of course, about this issue. first of all, the problem is clear, which is education needs to be overhauled in some capacity. why focus on tenure? >> tenure is not a cure all and in no way should we be talking about as it is. teachers aren't the problem to education, they are the solution. and we need to find ways to support them, to give them professional development, to create cultures that create a communal atmosphere in schools to succeed. but the reality is, i can go into any teacher faculty lounge, and there are teachers in buildings that just should not be there. it takes so many years, so much taxpayer dollars to get kids out. i was talking with my superintendent. she says, this is outrageous

that you have teachers that are in classrooms, everybody knows they're bad. you can't pull them out because you don't have an evaluation system that's going on. you have to go through all of this painful process that's expensive to get rid of them. >> what's the tenure process now? is it three years? >> again, it's multiple years, but what makes it more difficult is after they have tenure is that they can keep tenure then. it's very hard to remove them. i think there's a lot of focus on this. it's a disproportionate focus. we have to get a system right. we have to get it fair. ultimately, which is going on in new york, new jersey, many other states, when systems are shrinking and you have to layoff teachers, one of the most alarming things to me is that you're laying off teachers based on seniority and not on how well they're doing. so you often see the best teachers go out of schools as opposed to some of the low, low performers. >> ron? >> mr. mayor, another lane in this reform effort in a lot of places is to tie teacher compensation to student performance. what do you think about that

approach? >> i don't like how things are pitched as curals. i know one thing, if i'm in a building working myself to the bone, doing tutoring, doing home visits and getting great performance and there are other teachers that are not performing that well, being rated significantly lower, as soon as their contractual time is up they're out of the building, to me it seems unfair that there's not a way to better compensate people. whether that produces better student performance or not, i think it betters the performance. if you create better value you should get more. i'm in favor of that. i'm very sensitive to anybody who thinks this is an easy problem if we just do this, go out and attack the teaching profession or teachers. we need to create systems that support more people that draw more people into the profession. we have a pipeline problem. when they get there, don't abandon them but support their professional development. that's why assessments are important. they must be assessments that are not punitive but help

teachers develop in their profession. >> interesting to see how this goes. evaluation system, all those questions are what the teachers are looking at. that's what i think is a model that a lot of other states will look at. >> we're hoping to set the model. ahead on the "starting point." the spin after the win. everybody claiming victory on super tuesday. mitt romney does not land a knockout punch. we'll talk about that. the new ipad is being announced in a few hours. i just figured out my ipad 2. they've already moved on to ipad 3. we'll bring you live to apple headquarters. we'll leave you with carlos diaz's play list. the beastie boys. you're watching "starting point." ♪ it's fun time ♪ don't start. when you can, it don't start ♪ [ male announcer ] this was how my day began.

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everything to ann and me. i won't let you down. i'm going to get this nomination. >> i'm going to get this

nomination. kind of talking like the nominee. all the candidates are vowing to stay in the race this morning. as we prediktded for you, it all came down to ohio. mitt romney was able to squeeze out a win over rick santorum. rick santorum took three states. oklahoma, tennessee and north dakota. newt gingrich won georgia. that was predicted as well. it's been interesting to have these political conversations this morning. i thought tim pawlenty was interesting. he said we look at ohio. it's a positive. here's what he said this morning. >> i look at ohio and say, my goodness, what a positive result. he was 14 points down about three weeks ago according to one poll and to win it last night was remarkable. it's a four-way race. you're not going to be coronated in a tough fought four-way race. you have to go out and earn every vote. he's doing that. i think you look at those numbers and a reasonable person would conclude he's the best candidate and most likely to be the nominee. >> i think that santorum -- if the santorum campaign would

cleat l completely disagree. >> i think on fwal governor pawlenty is right. ohio is reflective of the base. santorum has a coalition enough to threaten romney but slightly too narrow to beat him. in no state so far has rick santorum won more than 31% of voters who are not evangelicals. he's too re4r50i7b9 on evangelicals. while romney has the advantage in ohio, he is not coalescing the party. in states that are competitive, he is still struggling among that populist evangelical wing of the party. >> if romney is a real threat, if gingrich gets out, santorum suddenly gets a lot more momentum. >> i think it will help him, but i think he is still facing the reality that he is too dependent on those most socially conservative voters. he did not win catholics again last night in ohio. >> he lost by 13 points. romney beat santorum with catholics. >> his band width is to narrow.

>> does it matter for mitt romney that he is not getting the people who qualify themselves as very conservative? listen, they're going to vote. they're not going to vote for obama. eventually they'll vote for him. this is about delegates, too. governor romney's over 1/3 of the way there. he's got a substantial lead on the other two. it's going to be a long slog. i do think ron is right, that eventually santorum's audience might be too narrow. he will cause the race to keep going. pressure the candidate. >> for sports people it's going to be march md madness. for people watching it it will be the march muddle. >> illinois will be a big win. >> that's a little ways off. >> march 18th. not that far. >> the biggest threat is very clear what's happening to independents who are watching this. that's where the presidential election is going to be. >> rick santorum won independents in ohio. >> he's winning ind pen dance who are voting in the republican primary.

romney has been declining through this process. he does have the opportunity if he wins to get a reset. as we've said before, part of the cost of this is that he has chosen to deal with each challenge that emerges on his right by trying to outflank them on some conservative issue, immigration, medicare. 20% cut in marginal tax rates. he has taken some positions that are going to be harder to defend in november. >> immigration issues like that, he's alienating latinos and bases he needs for a general election. to watch obama's numbers to climb within those populations should be a sign. >> that's the downside of it going on for a long time is that you end up having more time to make gaffes that are sometimes self-inflict self-inflicted. also a certain time to go a certain direction if it's being pulled to the right. >> ultimately this election will be decided on the economy and whether or not president obama's performance on the economy meets up to the standard of the voters. i do think that governor romney will get a reset with some of those audiences. over the long haul as we go into november.

>> depends. >> let's remember that one positive pattern. he runs well among constituencies where democrats have been doing well. he's stronger in swing places. >> there's other news other than politics. i know you're shocked. carlos diaz has those stories. >> good morning. some scary video out of n of no korea. more tough talk. new video running on state tv showing military exercises near the disputed border. on the tape he threatens to turn the capitol of south korea into a, quote, sea of claims. the fire ri language comes as diplomats hold talks on the u.s. restoring humanitarian aid to the communist nation. they stopped sending food in 2009 over a dispute of the north's program. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has wrapped up his visit. netanyahu told senators yesterday that he doubts that sanctions against iran will

prevent it from pursuing its nuclear weapons program. netanyahu also told lawmakers, quote, we have great friends in washington. netanyahu met with president obama a day earlier to discuss the iran threat and how to solve it. ashley madison.com, flirting with rush limbaugh. the hookup website for married people says it knows what it's like to be controversial. it's offering to buy up all the empty ad space on rush limbaugh's radio show. more than 20 sponsors have now bailed on limbaugh after he called georgetown law student sandra fluke a slut. the winner of the $336.4 million power ball jackpot has now stepped forward. and that lucky person is an 81-year-old woman from rhode island. she bought the winning ticket on a whim when she went to a stop and shop super market in newport to pick up some rainbow shesh bert. she's reportedly taking the $210 million lump sum. dimension that she's 81 years

old? which is the largest lump sum ever in that state. and just a few hours ago -- just a few hours from now -- i need the money. apple will unveil the next generation ipad. as usual, apple isn't talking about it. here's what we think we know. it's called the ipad hd. not the ipad 3. it's expected to have much sharper resolution, faster processing, and siri voice command. cnn's dan simon is live right now in san francisco with what we can expect. dan, my good friend, what do you have? >> reporter: hey, carlos. apple has really made these products now, some of these incremental updates into an art form. when the ipad first came out a couple of years ago people didn't think it would be a hit. people thought if you had a cell phone and a laptop you wouldn't need another deviegs. well, it turns out the ipad is apple's fastest selling device in the company's 35 year history. that's not only true for apple but for the entire consumer

electronics industry. what's going to be in the new ipad you ask? we're not quite sure, as you said, a faster, you know, processor, better screen. those kinds of things. the question is apple -- is apple holding something back? that's what we really want to know. we'll be in there in a couple of hours. we also think apple is going to update its apple tv set top box. that's not to be confused with an actual television which many think apple will come out with maybe sometime later this year. carlos? >> dan simon in san francisco. what i'm amazed with is how they can keep these secrets. there are so many people working on the new ipad and how they can keep these secrets is unbelievable to me. my source at verizon tells me it might be smaller than the old ipad. not just thinner, but smaller. >> all the accessories you have for your ipad are completely useless and you have to go buy all new stuff. >> is there any word on the 81-year-old becoming a super pac funder? is she going to change now the elections around the country, one person's voice?

>> she hasn't called me yet so i don't know. >> i am so jealous, i have to say. so rarely but i want to win power ball. yes. yes. yes, she did. still ahead this morning on "starting point," we're going to talk to two women, both former marine corps officers. they say they were sexually assaulted in the military. then they say when they stood up for themselves things got worse. we'll talk about their story straight ahead. you're watching "starting point." back in just a moment. i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry !

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a current and former u.s. service members have filed a lawsuit against the nation's top military officials. the officers accuse the military of tolerating a staggering level of sexual assaults within their

ranks. you see it right here. they said that there is a high tolerance for sexual predators in their ranks and a zero tolerance for those who report rape, sexual harassment, and harassment. joining me this morning are two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. former marine officers arianna clay and elle helmer. ari anna, tell me what happened to you? >> after about a year of really shocking harassment an officer senior to me and his civilian friend came to my house on a saturday morning, threatened to kill me, and assaulted me. i reported that and he was court marshalled. the civilian was granted immunity and he was found guilty of only adult ri and indecent language. >> elle, similar story in some ways to what happened to you. tell us a little bit about your

story. >> my story's a little bit different. i was the only second lieutenant and the only female officer at marine barracks washington for roughly one year. i was ordered to attend a mandatory pub crawl where t-shirts were printed and all the officers went from six to seven different bars throughout the capitol hill area and just drank a ton of alcohol. an immense amount of liquor consumption. hazing occurred there as well. after the event i was walking across the street to return and my company commander followed me, told me he needed to speak with me in his office. when we got to his office he immediately began pressing me against the wall, attacking me and that's -- the rape occurred after i was knocked unconscious after a skuffle and it just began being covered up from there. >> you both have said that it was really the -- in some waste the aftermath was even worse than the original attack. did you feel like you got any support from the military? >> i felt like i got no support

whatsoever. the policies and procedures that they had in place seemed legitimate. they have this sexual assault office but they issued the military protective order against me not to speak to any marine or go aboard the base, not the perpetrators. so in many ways it was definitely an attack on the victim rather than on the perpetrators, even during the court martial he was consoled and he was supported. no one spoke to me so -- >> there was a similar lawsuit that was tossed out of court about military jurisdiction, right? it was civilian court. what's different about the case that you're bringing now that makes you feel like this one will go forward? >> our case is different because it deals specifically with the department of the navy, include the marine corps, and not only is it just on the assaults and the rapes but the retaliation. just overall we want to show that the lack of readiness by the largest force in the world,

they're not prepared to handle the mountain of sexual assaults that are occurring in the department of defense. >> leon panetta has said he estimated it at sk like 19,000 plus sexual assaults and that roughly 3,000 are reported. do you think those numbers are off? >> i think they are. i would have to say they're higher. i mean, we immediately think, oh, a woman is the one who would come forward, but we're learning more and more that men are actually victims of assault and rape as well. so the numbers have to be higher, especially with just the very egregious evidence that it's so hard to come forward and if you do, it's going to end your career in a lot of ways. there's not a remedy. it doesn't become easier once you've come forward, you're ostracized and really just abandon abandoned. once you've come forward for help, you're out. >> ariana klay and elle helmer,

thank you. we appreciate it. carol costello is coming up at the top of the hour. she has a preview. good morning. good morning, soledad. just ahead, looking beyond the numbers of super tuesday, mitt romney wins on paper. two challengers claim their own victory. can the republicans unify behind one man? barack obama issues a challenge to the men who want to succeed him. he says republicans pushing for war against iran need to explain exactly what that means to the american people so what would some type of military action mean to america? we'll have answers for you. and railing against intolerance, kirk cameron, one-time tv star, full-time christian said he was the victim after speaking out against same-sex marriage. his side of the story coming up. he has many gay friends that are on his side. >> we'll see about that, won't we? all right. carol costello, i thank you. still ahead on "starting point," tomorrow foreman will talk about the virtual convention floor. christine romans will join us and we have brett o'donnell's

play list. little billy joel. you have a he redeemed yourself, brett. >> thank you. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪

the most important deciding factor in the republican race is not how many states a candidate wins but how many delegates. as tom foreman explains, it is still literally anybody's game. >> reporter: as we have been processing all these latest results from caucuses and primaries all over the country, the simple truth is, it's coming down to the delegates. the delegates will decide who

gets the nomination. so for the latest, let's take our camera up high for a better look. >> reporter: remember, the delegate count is all that really matters. our best calculation from the super tuesday voting is that newt gingrich on the left here picks up a sizeable number of delegates from his home state of georgia. ron paul over on the right grabs a little bit more. but the big fight between rick santorum and mitt romney in the middle, santorum in purple hit hard. he wins in tennessee, oklahoma, north dakota, very strong showing in ohio. he got a good, hefty sum of delegates. look at mitt romney by comparison. he had the most delegates on the floor when the night began and at the end of all the voting he picked up massachusetts, idaho, vermont, virginia, and then this big win in ohio. look at all the delegates he's added to his team. >> reporter: but it is important to consider what's ahead. some very big prizes still looming.

the california primary, for instance, with the largest number of delegates up for grabs. texas is also huge. more than 300 delegates will be divided up from those two states alo alone. "end point" with our panel is up next. ok, guys-- what's next ?

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this is on cory booker's play list and everybody else in america and the world. unoriginal but i do love that song. >> tough relationships. >> yes, yes, yes. that's true. let's get to our "end point." mayor booker, you'll start with us chblts we've been talking about politics. i'm the mayor of new york and new jersey. the globe lost a great leader congressman donald payne passed away. he was a hero for people. a true champion of service. at the end of the day we're focused on a few individuals running for president. america was built on a tradition of humble heroes going out and serving every single day. he was the change you wanted to see in the world. i hope an inspiration to the world. >> condolences to his family today. that's a sad story. mr. brett, "end point"? >> my "end point" would be

politics, you would think, but my "end point" is to pay tribute to a great quarterback, peyton manning, who is reaching his end it appears with the indianapolis colts. >> press conference at noon. >> the colts have had a long history of having these icons, and johnny unidas when they were in baltimore. they moved to indianapolis. i stuck with them. i was raised a colts fan. we hope -- >> it's a sad day for brett today and many others. >> ron brownstein, 30 seconds. >> i would say we have to reconvene this panel friday night at the apollo theater. >> deal. deal. deal. >> i would say re-confirming last week, rick santorum's coalition is broad enough to threaten mitt romney but not broad enough to beat him. he has to reach beyond what he's getting now in order to make this into a race. >> big thank you to our panelists. reminder on friday we'll be live by southwest. you can join us there. we'll be panelling obviously music, film, and interactive festival. i'll be on a panel.